→ Image Trapped

- a work in progress -

Bangkok is a metropolitan, driven by typical chaos of an Asian city, where things are bustling endlessly in a fast-paced and always in a flux. The anticipation of capturing a scene, or pausing a moment, strangely relies on unexpected decisiveness that urges the ability to see things in its entirety rather than emphasising on a glimpse of details. An intensely chaotic cityscape, contrasted by vivid urban colours, is an overwhelmed situation that makes Bangkok the expected city it is today.

Image Trapped is an experimental photography book that profiles Bangkok in its absolute chaotic mundane through a creative use of image framing—to eliminate unnecessary perspectives, notice the obscures and emphasise on what matters the most. The art of image framing adds visual values to the image; not only it has the ability to simplify and alter the composition, but can it also create an impact that enhances a harmonious visual balance.

Framing images in various ratios is an ideal practice in design and photography. When it is achieved creatively and correctly, it can introduce new perspectives of how imaginative a city like Bangkok really is through its chaos. The images within this book urge the readers to interact with the stories within a story, by capturing or cropping a scene within a frame outside of its norm. Inside an image, there are images trapped, yet to be discovered—an image may be intended to tell a story; but once it gets cropped or deconstructed into parts, the meaning gets altered entirely.

As part of an interactive reading experience, the readers have an opportunity to experiment and explore countless possibilities by using the props provided; to frame in or crop out parts of an image. These images are not meant to be perfectly composed, allowing the readers to choose and create their own frames within a frame. The visual conclusions are left open for interpretations—each image framed or cropped introduces various urban aesthetics of Bangkok and alternatively tells different stories inside a story.